#The Leading Player

[annahanover]

i'm thinking about when i saw pippin.

i'm thinking about how magical it felt, how easily i was swept into the show. thinking about how the audience for that show might as well be pippin. we are invited in, invited to waste an hour or two. they're all in our head, after all. we are invited to complete the finale. there is time to accept. do you?

you watch the leading player fall apart. slowly at first, in missed cues and wrong lines. then bigger. the show destroys itself before your eyes. you are pippin. you are still watching. does it feel wrong to watch? do you feel guilt, pity, something else? does it matter?

you watch pippin and catherine leave. you hope. your eyes drift to the leading player, still onstage, eerily silent. but everything is fine. this is a musical comedy. everything will be alright.

theo walks back onstage. the leading player looks up. your stomach sinks. you keep watching. you hear it. theo is singing corner of the sky. the notes of magic to do drift past you. the magic is returning, the stage resetting, the lights going back up. you look behind you. catherine and pippin are gone. they left. it's possible to leave. (how many pippins didn't?)

the leading player smiles. grips onto theo's shoulder, looks up at the audience, and grins. "see?" their smile seems to say. "we promised a good show. didn't we deliver?"

and didn't they? you enjoyed the show. you clap, and the cycle starts again. and you encourage it.

[your-blorbos-are-queer]

the leading player from the musical pippin is aegosexual (headcanon)

submitted by @loganschwarzy

[schwarzys-stimblog]

We've got magic to do, just for you!

The Leading Player (Pippin) stimboard with royalty themed stims!

x x x

x x x

x x x

requested by @chompisgay4mrbeast!

[blackcatarts]

outshine the sun, girl!

[rainyblueshroom]

just watched my local middle-to-highschool production of Pippin the Musical and omg.... leading player girlboss I know her personally and it was such an amazing show

[inevitablemoment]

Okay, big brain moment-- Ego Nwodim as the Leading Player.

JUST IMAGINE!

[richie-shitlips]

Hey y’all, my friend Logan was banned by his mom from using tumblr so I’m posting some incorrect quotes they made:

A: where do you get another duck?

B: we don't. It's just a good actor. Do you really think I get a new duck and kill it every night?

A: I didn't know ducks could act!

B: this one can

—————

A: Do you want to watch a musical?? Play in traffic?? I mean, you can do whatever you want now.

B: I want to chop my fucking tits off.

A: B, I only have five dollars.

—————

A: they thought I was the spawn of Satan

B: oh no, that's me

A: they incorrectly thought i was the spawn of Satan

—————

A: I’d be straight for Jesus *processes*

A: *jumps out of a window*

Literally everyone: WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

—————

A: Why are you like this

B: it’s the religious trauma :)

Beat

B: OH DO YOU HAVE IT TOO

[thegoosiestlucy]

ben vereen >>>>

[sp0o0kylights]

Backup drummer Steve and lead singer Eddie swap places during a televised interview perfomance after theyre told theyre not allowed to actually play live.

Instead, they're supposed to fake playing while a backtrack plays, and in revenge for this bs Corroded Coffin decides to make it obvious theyre not actually playing ( a la the time the band Muse did this exact thing cause that's where I got this from lmao)

They're scheduled to interview the frontman after, and while Eddie tells Steve the ruse will end at this point, he actually walks off stage with Jeff and Grant and leaves Steve to flail his way through the interview.

Which he does, but in revenge Steve gives increasingly ridiculous answers and lore about the other members of the band.

The fans love it. The fact Steve's not even the regular drummer (which is Gareth) becomes a massive in-joke. People regularly quote some of Steve's more unhinged answers and show up with t shirts with Steve's face on it and regularly demand he "sing."

(Muse did this swap as well, for anyone wondering, though obviously it was the actual drummer giving the interview and I'm sure he knew ahead of time LOL)

[dykedvonte]

MacCready being one of the few companions to not lose affinity if you eat people makes sense when you remember the fungus in Little Lamp Light grew from decomposing bodies. Like the kids weren’t eating people directly but they were eating people adjacent things.

Not to mention how the Lone Wanderer can trick the kids at LLL into buying “strange meat” to eat which is just human so it’s more likely than not they have just straight up ate people so he’s either very desensitized, knows what food desperation can do to people or feels he really has not ground to stand on since he was in the same boat whether he wanted to be or not.

[idiopathicsmile]

people talk about main character energy, but what about side character energy? i'm over here, tirelessly providing minor exposition and having quirky hobbies for several seconds at a time to establish how cool and normal the protagonist is

[annahanover]

so true!!! he IS aegosexual!!

[adrastea-moon]

ted ripping up the believe sign, although a little heartbreaking, is also a pretty significant sign of growth for him. the sign was in many ways a symbol of the way ted has relied on external validation because he didn’t actually have faith in himself. ted has been doubting himself and his purpose since the beginning of the season, and in the past, he would have refused to face those negative feelings and just buried them under his uber-cheerful persona. now though, he’s begun to process his emotions in a much more healthy way and doesn’t need to put that facade up all the time. and he doesn’t need a poster above his door because for the first time in a long time, he actually does believe in himself

[the-crimson]

I’m just spinning q!bbh in my mind rn I’ve got theories and analysis and bits of it are a stretch and it is rambly and long so it’s going under a cut but here we go XD

Everything he’s done since the eggs were taken has been so incredibly deliberate and he developed this plan when he was in the depths of the greatest despair. According to what he told Baghera today, he developed this plan before the anger stream when he lava cast the presidential office as that was part of the plan to draw out the workers.

So Bad blatantly lying and gaslighting and just being incredibly suspicious to everyone today feels deliberate. It feels like he’s intentionally burning these bridges. The whole gun debacle is a great example of this. I saw a post that suspected bbh took Ron to test Baghera and her loyalty to him by doing something he knows she’d disapprove of and while I don’t think that’s why he took Ron, I defiantly think that’s part of it.

The whole gun thing I feel is Bad’s test for Forever. Bad has lied to his face and changed the story so many times that even when Bad tells him the truth Forever doesn’t care. I think Bad is intentionally pushing Forever just like he is Baghera. He’s pushing him to see what it would take for Forever to cut ties. It’s brutal and is actively hurting Forever just like how Baghera was hurt learning what Bad had done to Ron.

Bad feels no guilt for what he’s done to Ron. All he cares about is what others would think of his actions. He knows what he’s doing is “wrong” but he doesn’t care. Such black and white morality is beneath him. He’s doing what he thinks is necessary.

And that includes his own self destruction. He is testing all of these relationships knowing full well that he might destroy them. He knows Baghera is so much more moral than him and has such a higher value of life so he intentionally showed her something that would shatter her perception of him. Bad knows that trust is very important to forever so he intentionally lies and gaslights him knowing full well that Forever may never trust him again.

Bad created this plan when he was at his lowest point. On an average day, Bad’s value of his own life is nonexistent. He designed a plan to uncover how the federation spies on them knowing full well that it could turn everyone against him. That sure sounds familiar doesn’t it? Bad’s proposed this exact same plan under different circumstances(“joining” the feds to make them worse so everyone revolts against them inspired by his building inspector bit”). He doesn’t care about himself and is willing to throw himself to the wolves and make everyone hate him if it means defeating the federation and getting their children back. Previously, bad never went through with the plan because he wasn’t as desperate but now… during the depths of his grief after the kids were stolen, there was nothing holding him back from complete self annihilation.

I think Tubbo discovering/catching on to bbh’s kidnapping put a hitch in Bad’s plans because now his tests for others are being influenced by an outside variable he can’t control, that’s why he spent the whole day doing damage control. He’s trying to spin the story in such a way that he’s still somewhat in control of the situation. He knows that the cats out of the bag. Everyone is going to suspect him now so what does he do? He spends the day making himself even more suspicious. He admitted to torturing foolish in the past. He admitted to imprisoning forever during the happy pills arc. He admitted to planning on abducting a player in the future. He’s making himself look so much more guilty.

Everything he does is with intent. What could be the intent here? He’s told several people that he wants to be arrested so he has access to the federation prisons/facilities. He’s told several people that he is capable of kidnapping/torturing someone. He denies he’s guilty of Ron’s disappearance while simultaneously making himself look guilty. Is he trying to push the federation? To see if they actually will arrest him? All fingers point to bbh and the federation knows this - they basically say so in the journals Tubbo found. But they continue doing nothing. The workers are warned to stay away from him at all costs but… why wouldn’t they just arrest him? They’ve done so to others for less. That’s the question I want Tubbo to be asking. He’s smart enough to realize there’s something off here. Yes bad has a guy in his basement but why hasn’t the federation done anything about it?

Maybe that’s Bad’s test for Tubbo. Bad knows Tubbo is fiercely intelligent and that he can’t bullshit has way past him so he gave Tubbo so much. Yes there was a lot of bullshit but Bad intentionally gave Tubbo more ammunition against him. Is that Bad’s test? If Tubbo finds proof that Bad has Ron in his basement and the federation continues not to act, will that clear Tubbo of suspicion in his eyes? Tubbo knows the worker Bad is trying to find, is Bad giving Tubbo a chance to unknowingly prove himself by uncovering Bad’s secret? “Has anyone ever told you your too smart for your own good, Tubbo?” It sounded like a threat but it could have been an invitation.

Fred has become an incredibly important npc and I have a feeling he is the key to unlocking the mysteries of the eggs and the great evil. I’m pretty sure he’s the one in the radio transmission that talks about why the eggs disappeared and Ron said he overheard Fred talking about the evil. Fred knows so much more than he lets on and one way or another, the players are gonna find out.

I’m also fascinated by Bad’s conversation with Bagi about Boo. Only after Bagi confessed to telling Forever about the secret did Bad put in his clipboard that she passed the test. We’ll how did she pass the test? She told someone about his secret. We’ll, she came clean about it. She told someone she thought was Bad’s best friend then admitted it. She wasn’t trying to go behind his back and thus was trustworthy. However, as the day went on and Bagi learned about Ron, this changed. Her perception of Bad changed and Bad updated his notes about her in response. She went from trustworthy to sometimes trustworthy to be careful what you tell her. She still passed the test but the level of trust dropped dramatically - which is so fascinating.

At the end of it, I think… through all of this, Bad is gonna burn all his bridges in order to find the eggs and destroy the federation. He’s accepted that at this point. He was so dismissive of Baghera’s concerns for Ron and Bad and almost felt like he was placating her, just telling her what she wanted to hear. If Baghera interferes with Ron, I don’t think Bad will accept that and he would sacrifice their relationship to continue his plans. If anything, I could see him releasing Ron into Baghera’s hands only to capture Fred in his place - and this time he wouldn’t tell a soul.

Just the sudden switch in attitude when everyone triggered his radar was palpable. “Get out of my house or die” he was so furious that this test had been interrupted but he masked it while with baghera. When Bad went flying into the hall of grim shouting at everyone to get out and attacking them mercilessly, you could feel the rage (part of that was the lore secrets being accidentally revealed but still) the entire visit with Ron was a performance for both Ron and Baghera and I feel so bad for Baghera because she’s in an impossible position.

She wants to be there for Bad she wants to support him but this… this is so far beyond what she is willing to excuse from him. This has crossed so many lines but there isn’t any turning back. She doesn’t want to lose Bad either through breaking his trust or being taken by the federation but at the same time she can’t stand by and do nothing. She needs to help him. Unfortunately, that means it’s highly likely Bad will end up immolating their friendship if she pushes too hard.

And just the way Bad acts around Ron is so fascinating. It’s all a performance. The large furnished home. The fridge full of food. The fish. The weird attachment Bad shows - almost a reverse Stockholm syndrome - while simultaneously talking over/for Ron in such a dehumanizing way. It’s so fascinating in the moments when the mask falls away. When Bad was watching Baghera talk to Ron - idk if it was just me - but I felt like Bad was a hawk observing it’s prey. He plays up the sugary sweetness and dependence but he still feels like a tiger prowling the bars of his cage eyeing the snacks on the other side. It’s the way he moves and what he choosss to look at during these scenes idk bbh’s body language is insane and I could devote an entire essay to analyzing it

Like Bad’s stream title before he started stream, there are only two sides. Either ur with him or against him and the only thing he values is finding the eggs and tearing down the federation. He doesn’t care if everyone grows to hate him. He doesn’t care if he grows to hate himself. There are no lines he won’t cross. It’s all worth it. It’s all inevitable.

[blackcatarts]

finales up in flames

[hauntingsunshine14]

summer olympics 2028 in a universe with no exy we have:

star gymnast neil josten

heavyweight champion andrew minyard

tennis pro kevin day

rugby goddess allison reynolds

d pole laxer matt boyd

marathon swimmer renee walker

volleyball libero aaron minyard

hockey forward dan wilds

synchronized diver nicky hemmick